Monday, October 20, 2008

BEEMAN’S BLOG – SEASON 3, EPISODE 6

Tonight’s episode was scripted by Chuck Kim and Chris Zatta. It was directed by Dan Attias.

This is Dan Attias’ second episode of HEROES. Last year he directed Episode 7 “Out of Time.” Dan is a real veteran of television as you can see from his imdb link: Dan Attias

He is one of those directors who is hard to book because he is sought after by every other show. And that’s no accident. He is a talented person who knows where to put the camera and, most importantly, always concentrates first and foremost on the emotions of a scene and on performance by the actors.

Chris Zatta, as of this season, is a staff writer and Chuck Kim is the executive story editor. Chuck has written 2 previous HEROES episodes - Season 1's Episode 19 titled ".07%" and also (co-written with Aron Eli Coleite) Season 2's unaired episode 13 entitled "True Identities." Chris has written 1 previous episode - Season 1's "Parasite" and was the subject of an earlier blog interview entitled “CHRIS ZATTA LIVING THE DREAM”

Chris came up from being an assistant on the show and Chuck was an editor/writer for DC Comics working on various titles including Batman and Superman. They are not a team per se’, but Tim Kring and the other writer’s who run the writer’s room decided to team them up for this one.

I am very proud of tonight’s episode. It looks great. It has sad moments. Funny moments. Action. Tension. And all that HEROES does well… You may completely disagree with me about all that, and that’s fine, but this one I feel we can hold our head up about.

It’s funny, because I remember, personally being pretty happy when I read the first draft of the script. But when Dan Attias came in, he really went after the script on a lot of levels. On day one he had a ton of logic and motivation questions. I can’t even remember what they were now (this episode prepped way back in June), but I do remember that this impressed me. Not every director gives a lot of script notes or asks the tough questions. It is a phenomenon in TV that, as a traveling director, you get the hand you’re dealt, script-wise, and you have to play it as best you can. It is more common in features and pilots for the director to give extensive notes, but Dan treated this one more like a pilot director would and I remember that, as the group addressed his many issues, the script got better.

One of the fun aspects of this season is that we are introducing new “villains” as we go. Trust me, this isn't not going to become a freak-of-the-week phenomenon (as my old show SMALLVILLE used to sometimes be criticized for) but it is nice to bring new characters in and explore them for just one episode without worrying about how they’ll be threaded into the series for weeks on end.

On this episode we got lucky. We read a number of people for ERIC DOYLE - the puppet master. This was a well written part, but, as you can imagine, it was very open to interpretation. In the auditions we saw many different physical types of actors who approached the material with many different delivery’s and physicality’s. We tried not to give them too many pre-conceived ideas. When David H. Lawrence came in, he read once and was great, and then we gave him some re-direction. The two notes I remember being given to him were (a) to realize that he really does love Meredith first and foremost. He truly believes he will and can win her over... And (b) to bring into his performance a certain infantilism. Doyle is a child who needs love, in an almost-maternal way, and who gets very angry when he doesn’t get it. David ran with these notes on his second reading - and we knew we had our man. credits

I’d been to the location and talked through the scenes extensively with Dan Attias – but I wasn’t there when we shot the bulk of the work at the puppet theater. It was a good sign to me that when I saw the shooting crew a couple of days after filming these scenes, many of them came up to me to remark on how good David Lawrence was. In the end, I think David really captures the screen and captivates you. He was also a great guy to work with. He was very happy and excited to be on the show. (Apparently once he even got klonked on the head super hard by Hayden who was getting quite into character. He took the hit and fell down as he was supposed to without complaint. Hayden, of course, was very apologetic.)

I’m also happy with the scenes in Africa with Hiro and Ando and Usutu. These scenes are fun and make good use of the space-time continuum. They were complex to lay out though, as you can probably imagine. We had to find natural rocks in the environment that suited the blocking and then Tim Sale had to paint images we knew we could achieve. I’m speaking, specifically, about whenever Usutu hits Hiro on the head. Getting the actors to match a pre-existing Tim Sale painting can be a challenge. But, luckily, Masi has a mind that is quite good for this. One of my favorite moments is when Masi goes back in time a minute only to get hit on the head with a shovel for the second time. We then cut to a shot of Ando from a scene we’ve scene just a few moments before. Hiro blinks out and, not two seconds later, he walks back in. This is a simple green screen effect, but it fits into the story very well – and I think the joke is capped off by James Kyson Lee’s reaction-shot to Masi walking in after Ando saw him disappear not-two-seconds before. I told James the other day that he, in my opinion, is like a highlighter pen to the joke. The joke happens. We cut to James. And the joke is highlighted. In the editing room, James is our go-to-guy for comedic reaction shots.

But enough about that, and on to what you really come here for – BEHIND THE SCENES PICTURES – WOO-HOO!!!!!

MASI OKA AND DIRECTOR DAN ATTIAS

WRITERS CHRIS ZATTA AND CHUCK KIM

MASI AND ME

AN ACTOR PREPARES PART ONE (REHEARSING THE SHOVEL-WHACK W/ MASI OKA AND NTARE MWINE)

AN ACTOR PREPARES PART 2 (ZACH REHEARSES AN OMITTED SCENE - WHAT THE HECK??!?)

181 comments:

My there's-a-new-Beeman's-blog-post notification system just started screaming with joy - it does that whenever Greg Beeman adds to the blogosphere. Ah, RSS, I love you so.

Man, this is a fun show to work on - and working with both Dan and Greg over the course of my time with the show has been nothing short of amazing - they both have an infectious enthusiasm that makes you want to do whatever you can and go the extra mile for them and the story. And they both couldn't have given me a better gift than to direct me in this, my first network role. I'm loving this!

Sidenote: as the stunt coordinator was picking me up off the ground after that hit from Hayden, he sternly said, "That's why your smarter actors don't do their own stunts." Heh. I do notice that's the take you used!

Second sidenote: must have been edited for length, but there was one more creepy kiss in that group scene for dear sweet Meredith. Icky, sloppy, creepy, and infantile. Maybe on the DVD.

Third and final sidenote: 443 is the count as of now from fans sending me email asking if I might teach them "the jail-cell-door mouth closing technique? Cuz I'd sure like to use that on my wife/husband!"

Er. Of course I do. He's a Petrelli. I seem to be totally unable to resist them. And OMG, that scene, with him and Peter. I just don't even know what to say. Awesome. I'm just flailing helplessly over here. There was just SO MUCH going on there.

And thank you for the almost-shirtless Adrian Pasdar scenes. ;)

Oh, and... more seriously, I totally cheered when Tracy kicked some ass. And when Sandra said she was the "one of us." Oh, yeah!

I'm loving this season SO much! It's so consuming! I am CRAZY about Sylar's characterization and I really hope it continues. Mohinder is creeping me out. He's absolutly insane; I can't figure out what is going on in his head. I'm really hoping the characters make it out of their various messes, and I'm looking forward to the journey of seeing how it happens. It can't ALL be tragic, right?

And puppetmaster if you are reading comments, you totally nailed this. Wonderful character and wonderful execution of it. :)

puppetmaster: creepiest, scariest, can't take my eyes off villain ever!!!!!! ..totally enjoyed your scenes and seriously - I hope you stay with the show for a bit and don't get killed off ... you are the 'baddest' villain and you are terrific!!!

I'm feeling very up and down this season. On the one hand, this season (and this episode) have some of my favorite heroes moments ever! Puppet man was a great character, Peter vs. Sylar is always really cool, and I never get tired of Masi and James!

On the other hand, it's tough to find the A plot. The characters are really segmented, and covering all of them every episode means a lot of the scenes end up being placeholders (albeit entertaining ones, mostly). I kinda wish we could bring the heroes together more, and maybe cover plots A, C, and D one episode, with A, B, and E the next. I put most of the blame on Jeff Loeb, but only because I have such respect for his work.

Keep up the good work, Greg. Through all the ups and downs, you've got a fan right here!

I'm speechless over tonight's ep. Really. Unbelievable action from beginning to end, and the final scene was just incredible. I'm still digesting it. You guys are really knocking out of the park this year!

Extremely disappointed you guys decided to kill off Adam. You only brought him back to kill him off? You should have just left him in the coffin then. What an unbelievable waste of potential. Ruined the episode for me.

Great episode, Greg. Perhaps the best of the season so far. Arthur Petrelli is shaping up to be the most intimidating character on Heroes ever. The last scene between Arthur and Peter was incredible. The puppetmaster and the blonde trifecta was intense and creepy too.

Peter and Sylar doing the sibling rivalry thing is pretty entertaining but please don't forget about Nathan. He is the only one who doesn't get his share of dysfunctional Petrelli family fun. I miss Peter and Nathan together.

This episode seemed rushed to me. It was much like a series premiere where we catch up with all the main characters and in that situation it's very rewarding because you've waited so long, but for episode 6 it seemed hurried. Perhaps it's because Daphne drove much of the plot. It also didn't seem to match the style of the other episodes from this season. Much more cartooney, it felt like "Chuck" was still on.

Some good parts, the Puppetmaster story line was one of the best parts of the show although the "Show's over" line was way too cheesy. Hiro and Ando's story was great too. Very funny. Matt and Daphne had potential, but there was too much rehash of information the audience already knew. Matt waiting around all day was perfect though. The current story arch involving Peter and Sylar is pure genius. I wish the fight had been a tad longer.

It was a good episode, but it is IMO the worst so far this season. Maybe it just couldn't live up to what I thought might be the best episodes in the series, "I am Become Death" and "Angels and Monsters". I've watched both of these episodes at least 8 times each and the commentary twice.

Aha! Good point about the scar Danny. And he's still and Empath so he can regain all his powers. All that complaining about how it didn't make sense when you just need to be patient and watch the sho. Viewers need to keep in mind that the writers probably have the next couple years sketched out in their minds. Just because something isn't wrapped up right away doesn't mean it's gone. Like Monica- I'm betting she shows up sometime, even if its' next year.

There are very few US shows that appeal to this reasonably intelligent UK ex-pat. Heroes is one of them. I adore it. The action is superb, the writing is fabulous, most of the acting is without compare in the current listings. Please, please, please don't let them perform a Firefly on you. Get NBC to run a check on how often this show is pirated on the internet before they think about cancelling it... ;)

Ok,I must admit:Another great episode!This season is youplaboum! TOOOO bad you chose Adam to die early.Well, we all kind of guessed as David was only a guest star but sniffff...He had a personal dynamic which were very interesting.Plus David is a great actor.I will really miss Adam...But:I LOVED the turtle! She was acting perfectly!Seriously, the scenes with the Puppetmaster were absolutly intense!Good Job Mr David.The 3 women were very good too.Sylar is going through something that is new for him.But does he really?mmmm Zach is perfect as usual, even in a more human skin, while Momo is getting really creepy( or is it just madness?) in a less human one.What are these cocoons for? Used as fridges? Reproduction? Sorry but i still think that if Momo doesn't go through a kind of redemption in the next episodes, he will be killed off too.He's on the Slope to Heroes Death this guy ;)Papa Petrelli seems an Arch Villain but how comes his sons never noticed before his 'death'? Nathan worshipped his father? why? Weird...The Speedster reminds me a bit of Elle.Dunno why.She speaks a bit like Donald Duck but well...I liked Mrs Bennet's involvment at last!A personal prayer again: Release Zach Quinto from the 14th to the 16th November please?He will soon be kidnapped by the trekkies and we won't be able to get him here in Europe.It's now or never for us!:)

Freaking brilliant episode, Greg... please disregard any bitchery from my previous posts. I'll never doubt you again... Can we get a chorus? OK, on three... BEST. SHOW. EVER!!

And a special "Thank you for being so creepy" to David (the seventeenth! That's how much you rule)! I'm glad you're a fan of the show too - and I hope you had fun on the set. I am jealous every week of how much fun this show looks like to produce. Hope this leads to more lucractive, satisfying work for you!

Jemiah, I'll join in the chorus, honey. BEST.SHOW.EVER. For so many reasons. The HIro/Ando + Usutu scenes were great, Brea and Greg (and the turtle) have lovely chemistry, and yes, David, you ROCKED as the PuppetMaster. Well done, dude!

At the moment, though, the delightfully damaged Petrellis own me. Arthur, you're a bad, bad man for being so awful to your son. Playing on his sweetness, asking for a hug? Oh, I hate you (but I love you, of course). Someone get Angela out of that coma so she can kick her husband's ass already!

Congrats on another fantastic episode. I feel like I'm saying this every week, but they just keep getting better! And thatnks for posting, as always.

WTH happen to Heroes. It has a lot of pottential but they keep putting new and new characters, there's too much going on and not even half of that is working. Since the season 2 the show is in downward quality-wise. They need to start close storylines of some characters, or even kill them. Even Hiro becomes idiot, and I truly love him in the 1st season. C'mon writers tied up storylines, and put them to work together against a bigger adversary and STOP recycling storylines for past seasons, comic-books and other series. No one want to see them save the world for themselfes, even I could write that. You could do better, Tim Kring.

Beeman, I feel bad since you leave SMALLVILLE, that show truly misses you. Your premieres and finales are among the finnest hours that I've seen in years. The only one at your level is James Marshall, and with both in the crew, we fans have 5 to 7 amazing episodes granted, plus the usual great and good ones. Don't get me wrong, I still love that show and they keep doing a great job since you leave, but it could have been greater.

First of all, puppetmaster, your performance was fan-fucking-tastic. The levels of creepy trumped even S1 Sylar, for me. Congrats, and as warped as I feel for saying what I'm about to say, I hope we get to see more from you later in the season.

Second, I'm in agreement with the other posters that this episode is pretty solid proof that Heroes has its claws back. Hiro's scenes made me laugh out loud for the first time since S1, the Petrelli family drama is surprisingly compelling.... However, nobody's mentioning Sendhil Ramamurthy at all, which is just a crime, because he is so astonishingly good at being a creeper, I almost can't believe it's the same actor we saw play angsty, nerdy Mohinder so adeptly in S1. You can still see the little hints of the dorky scientist Mohinder was when we first met him, but because of all he's been through, there's this new layer of darkness turning that clinical fascination in a new, eerie direction. A stretch of character, to be sure, but the writing and the acting make it completely believable, and I'm loving it. (Also, I'm assuming we'll see Sylar's reaction to this new Mohinder sooner or later? The potential for lulz is astronomical.)

Greg, thank you again for a great blog. The pace of the season has been excellent and the visuals incredible. I love the contrast in the hero and villan scenes and how you use light and camera angles to great effect. The cinematography this season is amazing. Keep up the good work and it looks like you guys are having a whole lot of fun.

However, the second Adam died in that ignoble, 5-second-murder, we're-probably-never-going-to-mention-this-guy-again manner, I swear I saw red.

And this makes me really, really sad, because it was a good--hey, a great--episode. But if the Heroes mothership has taken off from this recent planet without Adam, I think it's just left me behind too.

You killed Adam!!!! Just to give Max Cherry the big guy bad intro, Robert Forster is a great actor he didn't need his malevolence is all in his face to see. You get rid of characters who have the most potential and the new villains well they suck tbh bar daddy Petrelli. This season is so far so inferior to Season 1 and parts of Season 2. How could you let this happen?. Characters have no arc and its all over the place, and bring back Elle and team her up with Hayden.

And hardly of the characters have moved on with any depth to their story bar Sylar, just not feeling this season so far, feels a bit shallow and empty.

Adam's death was incredibly anticlimactic. He was the primary villain of Season 2, and then he gets offed by Arthur Petrelli. I've got nothing against Petrelli Dad, but seriously, I was hoping Adam would be around a little longer this season. David Anders is great.

That being said, I thought the puppetmaster Eric Doyle was a great character, and since he's not dead, there's always that chance of a return.

I just don't get why Peter couldn't counteract his dad's ability... It happenned with Parkman in Season 1, that would fall in line with the ability you gave him. You can't just change stuff like that as you go...

hey i just want to say thank you for providing us with amazing behind-the-scenes info and pics! i absolutely love reading your blogs! Give my huge congratulations to the entire Heroes team: so far, season 3 (and especially these last few episodes) has totally blown me away. keep up the fabulous work! :) p.s. slusho rocks my world ;P

Puppet Master is a very neat character and very formidable. It sucks that you guys killed Adam :/ but you are staying in my good graces with lots of yummy Sylar bits. I'm looking forward to seeing what developments will come out of the banned together villains. I'm sure you guys won't disappoint me ;)

hey! love that scene where hiro fake-stabbed ando, ando's reaction when stabbed was first so heart rending, and re visiting that reaction is now just hilarious!!

yeah i do agree with a lot of the comments that killing adam was waste, it probably happenned to soon and too fast, i wanted to see adam kick ass a whole lot more!~

as for gerakis100's comment saying why couldn't Peter have counteracted his father's ability with his empath, to that i say, probably Peter doesn't know of his father's ability, so not knowing of an ability makes it impossible to imitate it right?

overall, i loved this episode, it seems that the characters, especially peter is heading in the right direction...

but sobb... Peter doesn't have abilities now!!! how sad, but he would, i think regain his powers sometime in the future, cos future Peter still has powers. hmm... or maybe, the whole future is changed now?? so that future Peter no longer exisits??i dunno

one thing i've always found hard to believe is how Sylar suddenly decided to turn over a new leaf, it just seemed to sudden for me. but that said, in this episode, the peter-sylar scenes were great! we get to see some of that peter-sylar kick ass battling that was cut short in five years gone back in season one.

plese, can someone write out the romance between Matt and Daphne?Matt is my favourite character, but the obsessions he has for her and the way he speaks, kinda turn him into a pedophile.He deserve some older mature hot lady! Now I'm started to miss his wife and the FBI chick back in season 1. :(

Why? Just tell me why you guys decided to kill off Adam?? He had a great storyline, a depth... it wasn't just "I'm a villain because I'm a villain"... there were reasons... how I said a depth...

It's been just too fast... not only is futile death... also the entire season... there's a lack of depth (yeah... I know... I'm obsessed with this word...)in some of the characters storylines... just slow down... I love this shows beacause all the characters had a story behind them, they were (some still) are very well written... please i would like to see more of that again...

You are all forgetting the moment where Angela Petrelli told Hiro that Adam is necessary in "solving the mystery." Surely since Adam has been alive for hundreds of years, Hiro can travel to another time period to get answers from him. Especially because of the recent goadings from Ando to forget about Hiro's vow to never travel backwards. Adam had the answers and he's the oldest special, that we've seen so far. They didn't kill him for good. just in the present storyline. That's my two cents, anyway.

I have been an avid reader for quite some time to the Beeman blog, and must say I love how he keeps us updated with whats going on behind the scenes with Heroes. Great work, funny stories, and over all a must read for any true Heroes fan.

Though I must wonder from past episodes if future Peter understood through seeing the future in some way, that taking Sylars power would ultimately fall into Papa P's hands, and Papa P would end up with the hunger, and that would be his downfall? Just curious about that.

I still think that Mr. Muggles has to make an appearance sometimes soon. I swear Mr. Muggles is Uluru the invincible *Big smiles*

I also have a question, why do we not see any teenaged boys on the show? I mean we know that teenagers especially boys who are comic book fans, they would better relate to one teenager in highschool. I think it would be awesome to have a teenage boy who is able to feel the air waves around him and control them, *A concept for a fan-fiction character I had ever since Season One Episode: Five years gone. When Sylar (pretending to be Nathan) says to Mohinder, "Today a boy in (Some city I cannot remember at this time)sucked out all the air from his class room and killed everyone." I based the concept on that, and I wish that Someone would make a site where I could post it, I have a lot of chapters done on it already. Just no place to post.

Anyways, I thank everyone on heroes for their hard work and am seriously hyped about tonights episode, I cant wait to see how Sylar will infiltrate the villians/ Papa P's company to get Peter. Keep up the good and hard work that we so dearly love.

Sad to see Adam dispatched - he was one of the best things about series 2 and David Anders looked like he was having twice as much fun as anyone else in the cast, but it's nice to see Heroes get their balls back and start killing characters again. There were echoes of Eden's shockingly premature death there.

If Mohinder is going crazy does that mean he can be killed off now? Please?

Just quickly want to praise the unsung hero that is Ashley Crow, who is constantly bloody brilliant as Sandra Bennet. Just as rock-hard as her company man husband.

So, as far as I can figure, it's up to Sylar, Hiro and the Bennets to save the day. Never thought I'd be typing that sentence!

After seasons 1 and 2, season 3 went downhill pretty quick. Too many plot twists are happening in too little time.

Season 3 also skips over lots of potential killing off Adam Monroe and disregarding any kind of maturing Hiro Nakamura did in seasons 1 and 2.

I'm still pondering if I'd rather watch paint dry and peel instead of the Matt Parkman storyline. The loser part has been played too many times.

And come to think of, it's attamept... number 4 or 5 in the I'm your parent revelations in the show, now with Arthur Petrelli showing up?

Also, when a scientist, who so far seemed to possess a brain injects himself with an untried formula (and good lord, was it absolutely necessary to use the scientist turns into a monster cliché?), there is something seriously wrong.

Season 1 made perfect sense, so did season 2. Season 3 seems to be badly or overenthusiastically plotted out.

2 things I particularly enjoyed about the Sylar/Elle death scene. 3 actually. 1, not to disparate blondes, but the diversity factor among women here is getting frighteningly blonde, so some more colors would be welcome. 2, cool that Sylar lit Elle WITH HER OWN POWER. 3, Sylar's unapologetic blood-stained shirt almost looks like a superheroes tunic. Is it?

Can Hiro be any more incompetent? Both times his parents entrusted him with something important, parts of the formula, and both times he blew it within minutes of receiving it.Can someone explain this to me?

Plus can someone explain how Arthur can time travel and find Hero anywhere, but he couldn't have just did the same to get Claire. I like Heroes but the plot has to make sense.

The Requiem shows up so many cool pictures that got me thinking a lot. And I really mean that a lot of requiem gold is very important and required. First off is not taken some requiem lant of book Requiem. Some requiem money will well enough chatting better go and write this book. In Requiem, there is blood. Monsters, blood, bigger monsters, and yes, more blood and need cheap requiem lant. You know what that requiem online gold means; there are factions, races changing sides, and all out war.

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